1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a cover for a window well associated with a window of a building and more specifically concerns a window well cover that can be semi-permanently attached to the side of the building so that the window well can be opened for access as desired.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of window wells surrounding the exterior of below grade windows, such as a window in the basement wall of a building is widely known. Normally, such windows are near the upper side of the basement wall but are either partly or wholly below grade. To protect the window from backfill and other damage and to allow sunlight to be exposed to the window, it is customary for a window well to be placed around the full exterior of the window.
To comply with safety regulations concerning ingress and egress from below grade windows and to increase the amount of sunlight that is allowed therethrough, a trend has developed of providing relatively large window wells surrounding such windows. Although such enlarged construction has many advantages, it is also has the disadvantages of allowing for rubbish and other materials to collect in the window well areas and in times of intense rain can serve as a collecting basin for unwanted amounts of moisture.
To lessen the above noted disadvantages, it is known in the art to provide window well covers for below grade windows and a variety of different types of embodiments of such covers have previously been utilized. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,903,455 issued to Veazey discloses a window well cover that includes an extruded metal frame for receiving the perimeter portions of a plastic glazing sheet to serve as a cover member for a window well. Although such window well structure appears to provide a relatively lightweight cover apparatus for a window well, the specific structure it employs appears to be unnecessarily complicated and relatively expensive to manufacture. The present invention provides an improved structure for a window well cover apparatus that avoids the foregoing disadvantages.
The present invention provides an apparatus for serving as a cover for a window well associated with a below grade window of a building and comprises a frame member conforming to the shape of the window well and has spaced apart inwardly extending projections, a retainer means that serves as a connection between said frame member and said building and has a pair of outwardly extending projections, beam means extending between the lower most projection of said frame member and the lower most projections of said retainer member, and a protective cover member overlying said beam means.
The protective cover member is designed to have edge portions receivable within the spaces between the frame member projections and the retainer means projections to secure said cover in a fixed position in said apparatus to close off the top of the window well. Furthermore, the frame member includes means for seating said member on the upper periphery of the window well.
Preferably, the retainer means provides a semi-permanent connection between said frame member and said building and also provides a pivotable connection therebetween so that the frame member can be pivoted with respect to the building to open the window well to the outside to readily enable ingress and egress if it is desired for safety reasons or other purposes.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be readily appreciated from the following description. Such description makes reference to the accompanying drawings, which are provided for illustration of the preferred embodiment. However, such embodiment does not represent the full scope of the invention. The subject matter which the inventor does regard as his invention is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion of this specification.